Va. Senate approves use of electric chair

Associated Press

RICHMOND, Va.

Virginia would be allowed to force condemned inmates to die in the electric chair under a bill the state Senate approved Monday as a response to the nationwide shortage of lethal-injection drugs.

Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe has not indicated whether he will sign the bill, which set off a passionate debate in the General Assembly. The bill won approval with a 22-17 vote in the Senate, meaning it doesn’t appear to have enough support to survive a veto if it’s spiked by McAuliffe.

Like many states, Virginia has struggled to obtain lethal-injection drugs in recent years because drug companies have protested their use in executions. The short supply of the drugs has forced several states to pass or consider laws to bring back other methods of executions, such as electrocution and firing squads.

Supporters of the bill say death penalty foes are forcing the state’s hand by making it more difficult to obtain lethal injections. But opponents say forcing inmates into the electric chair actually will undermine the death penalty by putting the constitutionality of the law at risk.

“If you press the green button, you’re going to be sending us into a hail storm of legal chaos,” said Democratic Sen. Scott Surovell, a staunch capital punishment opponent. “When somebody is given the death penalty in this state, the state is simply charged with extinguishing a human life, not torturing someone brutally until they finally die.”

State supreme courts in Georgia and Nebraska have ruled that the electric chair violates the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.